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Syrian peace talks in peril after opposition's chief negotiator quits | |
(about 13 hours later) | |
The prospects of a negotiated peace settlement in the Syrian civil war were dealt a serious blow when the opposition’s chief negotiator in UN-brokered talks in Geneva resigned, describing them as a waste of time on security and humanitarian fronts. | |
Mohammed Alloush, a member of the Saudi-backed rebel group Jaysh al-Islam (army of Islam), condemned the international community’s “inability to enforce resolutions, in particular regarding humanitarian issues, [such as] the lifting of sieges, access to aid, the release of prisoners and adherence to the ceasefire”. | |
Alloush, who had also come under pressure from his own military supporters to resign, said in a statement on Facebook on Sunday: “The three rounds of talks were unsuccessful because of the stubbornness of the regime and its continued bombardments and aggression towards the Syrian people.” | |
Before his resignation, Alloush had called on Russia and the US to do more to enforce a ceasefire. He had also called for more action on the release of political prisoners and their treatment while incarcerated. | |
The UN’s envoy, Staffan de Mistura, last week postponed talks for three weeks, saying more time was needed to re-establish the cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access to besieged cities. | |
Previous rounds of talks in Geneva made little progress in the central issue of a political transition. Many on the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) believe the US is focusing on removing Isis from its de facto capital Raqqa rather than the battle to dislodge Bashar al-Assad. | |
Asaad al-Zoubi, the head of the main Syrian opposition delegation, also said he wanted to be relieved of his post in the HNC but did not confirm he had taken a similar step. The HNC said Alloush’s decision will lead to a wider restructuring of its leadership. The move also reflects tensions about whether it should pull out of the talks altogether and in effect disband. | |
Alloush’s importance to the HNC stemmed from his closer links to Syrian fighters. Some members of the committee – an unwieldy group assembled in Riyadh – were regarded as exiles who have less direct contact to those fighting Assad’s forces. The danger for those trying to keep the peace process alive is that the HNC will lose legitimacy if it does not have sufficient links with rebel fighters. | |
Meanwhile, the Syrian government’s chief negotiator in Geneva, Bashar Jaafari, had described Alloush as a terrorist, refusing to talk to him unless he “shaves off his beard”. Forces linked to Alloush have been accused of atrocities in Damascus suburbs. |